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yttrium

(Encyclopedia)yttrium ĭtˈrēəm [key] [for Ytterby, a town in Sweden], metallic chemical element; symbol Y; at. no. 39; at. wt. 88.90585; m.p. about 1,522℃; b.p. 3,338℃; sp. gr. about 4.45; valence +3. Yttriu...

protozoan

(Encyclopedia)protozoan prōˌtəzōˈən [key], informal term for the unicellular heterotrophs of the kingdom Protista. Protozoans comprise a large, diverse assortment of microscopic or near-microscopic organisms ...

Göttingen

(Encyclopedia)Göttingen götˈĭng-ən [key], city, Lower Saxony, central Germany, on the Leine River. It is ...

hardness

(Encyclopedia)hardness, property of matter commonly described as the resistance of a substance to being scratched by another substance. The degree of hardness is relative, different substances being compared with o...

naturalism, in philosophy

(Encyclopedia)naturalism, in philosophy, a position that attempts to explain all phenomena and account for all values by means of strictly natural (as opposed to supernatural) categories. The particular meaning of ...

Pasolini, Pier Paolo

(Encyclopedia)Pasolini, Pier Paolo pyĕr päˈōlō päsōlēˈnē [key], 1922–75, Italian writer and film director. A former Roman Catholic and a Marxist, Pasolini brought to his work a combination of religious ...

Haushofer, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Haushofer, Karl kärl housˈhōfər [key], 1869–1946, German geographer, theorist of Nazi geopolitics, including the doctrines that the state is a living organism and that race and territory are lin...

kindergarten

(Encyclopedia)kindergarten [Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary s...

Bülow, Bernhard Heinrich Martin, Fürst von

(Encyclopedia)Bülow, Bernhard Heinrich Martin, Fürst von bĕrnˈhärt hīnˈrĭkh märˈtĭn fŭrst fən büˈlō [key], 1849–1929, German chancellor. He held many diplomatic posts before he became, through the...

will, in philosophy and psychology

(Encyclopedia)will, in philosophy and psychology, term used to describe that which is alleged to stimulate the motivation of purposeful activity. It is characteristic of the will that it can be observed only in one...